What If A Stranger Approaches You

Explains why it is necessary to be careful around strangers and offers advice on ways to stay safe.

Fifteen “alarming and gorgeous” stories from the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author about the quiet terrors of American life (The Boston Globe). Laura Kasischke, national bestselling author of The Life Before Her Eyes and White Bird in a Blizzard, both adapted for film, looks behind the quietude of domesticity to find the “strange and unexpected and sometimes extraordinary” in this collection of stories that “defies simple definition” (Booklist). In “Mona,” a mother violates her daughter’s privacy certain she’s hiding a dreadful secret. In “You’re Going to Die,” a girl delights in the cruel power she has over her ailing father. In “Search Continues for Elderly Man,” a little boy’s invitation for a lonely old neighbor to come out and play takes a shocking turn. In “Our Father,” children camouflage their sleeping dad in dirty rags to protect him. But from what?; and in the title story, a woman agrees to carry a package aboard a plane for a stranger despite—or perhaps, because of—her fantasizes about potential disaster. Populated by people coming to terms with a life that is just a little bit off—after there is a tiny mummified heart in a dresser drawer of a suburban home, If a Stranger Approaches You is “an important addition to [Kasischeke’s] own body of work and to the contemporary literature of end times” —NPR Books

Explains how to deal with strangers in public places, on the telephone, and in cars, emphasizing situations in which the best thing to do is run away or talk to another adult.

If you are hanging from a trapeze And up sneaks a camel with bony knees, Remember this rule, if you please— Never talk to strangers. This book brilliantly highlights situations that children will find themselves in—whether they’re at home and the doorbell rings, or playing in the park, or mailing a letter on their street—and tells them what to do if a stranger (always portrayed as a large animal, such as a rhino) approaches. Colorful, ’60s-style “psychedelic” artwork and witty, lively rhyme clearly spell out a message about safety that empowers kids, and that has never been more relevant. Irma Joyce wrote many Golden Books during the 1960s. George Buckett was a popular children’s book illustrator during the 1960s.

A manual for parents and other caregivers to help children learn caution with strangers without terrifying them

Why does your toddler get upset when his or her routine is disrupted? Why do they follow you from room to room and refuse to play on their own? Why are daily routines such as mealtimes, bath time, and bed time such a struggle? This accessible guide demystifies the difficult behaviors of anxious toddlers, offering tried-and-tested practical solutions to common parenting dilemmas. Each chapter begins with a real life example, clearly illustrating the behavior from the parent's and the toddler's perspective. Once the toddler's anxious behavior has been demystified and explained, new and effective parenting approaches are introduced to help parents tackle everyday difficulties and build up their child's resilience, independence, and coping mechanisms. Common difficulties with bath time, toileting, sleep, eating, transitions, social anxiety, separation anxiety, and sensory issues are solved, along with specific fears and phobias, and more extreme behaviors such as skin picking and hair pulling. A must-read for all parents of anxious toddlers, as well as for the professionals involved in supporting them.

Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Revisionist History and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Outliers, offers a powerful examination of our interactions with strangers and why they often go wrong—now with a new afterword by the author. A Best Book of the Year: The Financial Times, Bloomberg, Chicago Tribune, and Detroit Free Press How did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler? Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? Do television sitcoms teach us something about the way we relate to one another that isn’t true? Talking to Strangers is a classically Gladwellian intellectual adventure, a challenging and controversial excursion through history, psychology, and scandals taken straight from the news. He revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, the suicide of Sylvia Plath, the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia scandal at Penn State University, and the death of Sandra Bland—throwing our understanding of these and other stories into doubt. Something is very wrong, Gladwell argues, with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we don’t know. And because we don’t know how to talk to strangers, we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our lives and our world. In his first book since his #1 bestseller David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell has written a gripping guidebook for troubled times.

You might have heard people say, "Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet." That's true in many cases, but not all strangers are kind and friendly. Some strangers can be dangerous. Staying away from people you don't know is often the best way to keep yourself safe.